Michael Strahan’s time within the highlight would possibly simply have ended when he walked away from the NFL in 2008. In spite of everything, it’s fairly laborious to high a 15-year run with the New York Giants that landed him in seven Professional Bowls and culminated in a Tremendous Bowl upset win over the New England Patriots.
“Your profession is over whenever you’re nonetheless very younger,” he says. “I used to be 36 after I retired!” However Strahan knew he had extra to realize.
Because it seems, Constance Schwartz-Morini, a razor-sharp alum of the NFL and expertise company The Agency, noticed Strahan’s potential for greatness off the sphere. She’d tapped him to emcee a golf event within the ’90s, they usually turned lifelong buddies. Below her steering, Strahan revamped his model and branched into TV, first changing into an analyst on “Fox NFL Sunday” after which touchdown the coveted internet hosting gig reverse Kelly Ripa on the syndicated morning present “Stay With Kelly and Michael.”
“I name her the boss, as a result of she is the boss,” Strahan says of Schwartz-Morini, including he’s realized higher than to query her sage recommendation. “She’s greater than seemingly proper,” he quips.
Within the years since, Strahan has reworked from a defensive finish to a strong multi-hyphenate,
changing into an writer, an entrepreneur and one of the vital seen faces on TV, internet hosting “Good Morning America” and “The $100,000 Pyramid” on ABC.
After crafting that white-hot second act, Schwartz-Morini and Strahan set about mimicking that success for others. They’re charting a brand new course for the trendy athlete by SMAC Leisure, the all-in-one expertise administration, manufacturing and model incubation firm they based in 2011.
“Individuals would attempt to pigeonhole and say, ‘You’re solely going to do that,’” Schwartz-Morini remembers. “The long run is with the ability to weave all of this collectively.”
Just some years in the past, many athletes’ solely post-retirement possibility was vying for a commentator function on community TV or a podcast. SMAC goals to open extra doorways for them.
Take Deion Sanders. Because of SMAC, the previous professional soccer and baseball participant has added “docuseries star” to his résumé. Followers can comply with his new chapter as a university soccer head coach (first for the Jackson State Tigers and now for the Colorado Buffaloes) within the sequence “Coach Prime,” which returns for its third season on Prime Video in early 2025.
Deion Sanders in “Coach Prime”
Courtesy of Prime Video
Sanders has additionally entered into profitable partnerships with manufacturers like Nike, Blenders and RedCon1 to promote every part from sun shades to protein powder. “Coach Prime’s cleats have been on fireplace this week,” Schwartz-Morini says. “So many top-level NFL gamers have been sporting them.”
SMAC’s roster of shoppers, which incorporates Nikki and Brie Garcia, Stefon Diggs and Tony Gonzalez, has expanded to extra than simply athletes. Rappers Frequent and Wiz Khalifa, sports activities commentator Erin Andrews and mannequin Camille Kostek are among the many leisure figures rounding out the checklist.
SMAC’s secret sauce, Schwartz-Morini says, is its in-house manufacturing sources, which allow shoppers to satisfy their wide-ranging objectives.
“Expertise is elevating their arms and shouting from the mountaintops, ‘We’re greater than only one factor. We need to produce initiatives,’” says FredAnthony Smith, who joined SMAC two years in the past as its unscripted improvement chief.
Amongst these productions is the just-released Prime Video sequence “Evolution of the Black Quarterback,” by which Michael Vick goes on a cross-country journey to discover the connections between Black quarterbacks and American social historical past — and displays on the non-public street he’s traveled.
Michael Vick and Doug Williams in “Evolution of the Black Quarterback”
Amazon Studios
The SMAC workforce doesn’t dwell on the success of 1 sequence earlier than shifting on to the following. From now
till January, they’ve a brand new present launching each month, together with “Black Comedy in America” on Vice and a “Madden” online game docuseries for Prime Video. “We’re tiny and mighty, and our heads are at all times down,” Schwartz-Morini says.
“It looks as if a short while for many, nevertheless it’s been a grind,” Strahan provides. “I simply marvel at Con’s tenacity. The boss led the way in which.”
What’s subsequent within the SMAC pipeline?
“Black Comedy in America”
Vice — Oct. 15
This docuseries, hosted by Tiffany Haddish, Chris Spencer and Ryan Davis, examines the historical past of African American comedy’s affect on America.
Untitled ‘Madden’ Video Recreation Doc Collection
Prime Video — Fall 2024
The sequence explores the historical past of the ‘Madden’ online game, together with the origins of Digital Arts and the efforts to persuade John Madden to come back onboard.
“Coach Prime” Season 3
Prime Video — Early 2025
College of Colorado Boulder soccer coach Deion Sanders returns for one more outing, this time joined by his son Shedeur and top-ranked prospect Travis Hunter, because the Buffaloes transfer to the Large 12.
